Interconnected

A year ago the total number of music downloads purchased in the UK was 500,000; today that number is sold every week. The download wars entered a new level last week with high street monsters HMV (www.hmv.co.uk/digital) and Virgin (virgindigital.com) both entering the market with million plus catalogues, feature-packed jukeboxes, easy to use systems and the same price scales (79p per track and premium subscription at £14.99 a month).

Elsewhere, www.karmadownload.com, which caters to the underground music scene, has relaunched with radio channels and the ability to pay for tracks on your phone bill. Despite all the hoopla of the launches, the biggest download story of the week is Help: A Day In The Life (warchildmusic.com), a digital charity album featuring the likes of Bloc Party, Keane and Damien Rice who all recorded new tracks on the same day last week.